Bambara

Bambara is the national language spoken in Mali by 6 million people (including second language users). Bambara belongs to a group of closely-related languages called Manding. Although written literature is only slowly evolving (due to a predominance of French as the "language of the educated"), there exists a wealth of oral literature.

Bambara, also known as Bamanankan, has many local dialects. Some dialect variants are: Somono, Segou, San, Beledugu, Ganadugu, Wasulu and Sikasso.